Burning through cash

It's key to run your company as cheaply as possible in the beginning, that's the only way you're going to extend your runway and chance of getting funded, says Livingston. "If you're burning through cash and you cant get funding, which you won't if you don’t have some sort of traction, you’re dead," she says. Areas where people overspend? Spending big on domain names because they're wedding to the name of something that's still little more than an idea. Spending $10,000 on a flash video is probably unnecessary too, she says.